2013 in Movies – The Erwin’ious Must-See List (Part II)

We have survived the part of the year where we have to get our fix through television or the minor gems coming out of Hollywood. But enough with looking backwards, it is time to look what is ahead of us for the remainder of this year. And looking at the cinema schedule, I am hopeful that there are some great things to come. I have put together a list of my personal must-see list which I thought was worth sharing.

The Wolf of Wall Street

In the past years, the combination Scorsese and DiCaprio mostly meant extremely high quality cinema and no Oscar for DiCaprio. Chances are high that this might happen again this year but it is definitely a must-see. After their last adventures my beautiful home New England, the focus is shifting to the portrayal of greed and the now famous Wall Street “gluttony” . The cast looks outstanding with Leo leading the pack in (a maybe finally) Oscar performance in a GIF-worthy trailer (thanks for papermag.com). He is accompanied by heavyweights like Matthew McConaghey, Jonah Hill and Kyle “getting-it-done, Coach” Chandler in yet another supporting role in big production.

Don Jon

The first time I learned about this movie was through one of my Scarlett Johannssen fanboy friends who happens to have a man crush on JGL … so basically we are in agreement here. Reading more about this movie, I was starting to really look forward to it for the following three reasons:

JGL has not starred in a bad movie in the past years (even Rush seems to have been decent)

Tony “Who is the boss” Danza as the father of a guido who loves porn…what can go wrong with that

Scarlett Johansson playing a white-trash princess … do I have to say more

Rush

As a German, it always makes me happy to see my fellow countrymen in a big hollywood production like Rush. From what the blogosphere is saying so far, Daniel Bruehl seems to be delivering a great performance. Not being a big Formula 1 fan but ironically an avid (Yes, I admit it) fan of Days of Thunder, I’m really looking forward to a fantastic entertainment spectacle. Ron Howard has had his ups and downs but he always manages to entertain in a very effective way (Frost/Nixon, Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind). Not that I’m a big fan of Chris Helmsworth – maybe it has to do with my gender – but from what I have seen and heard, he seems to be doing a fine job.

Captain Phillips

Tom Hanks seemed to have lost his magic of the 90s and early 2000s where almost everything touched turned into gold. But let’s be honest which actor is able of keeping a streak like he did those days (Philladelphia, Forest Gump, Apollo 13 and Saving Private Ryan … ). Aside from the fact that the story (based on true events) of Captain Phillips and the hostage taking in Somalia is super interesting, it also appears that Tom Hanks has fought his way back to the hearts of the movie critics. In any way, the trailer looks awesome and I will definitely watch this one in the theater.

Gravity

I quite frankly hadn’t heard much of this movie before and the first trailers I saw were quite “minimalist”. Also I wasn’t quite sure what to think of the combination Bullock-Clooney but let’s be honest, when was the last time George Clooney made a really bad movie. Since being in full release, I have not read a single bad review or heard any negative word of mouth which is being confirmed by an impressive 97% on rottentomatoes. And everything over the 95% mark has to be on the must-see list.

Prisoners

Just having a great cast doesn’t normally qualify for a great movie. But anything with Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman deserves at least a second look; and after watching the trailer on youtube and seeing the reviews on RT, I think that this movie might have deserved a theater viewing. But see for yourself…

Out of Furnace

The only knowledge I have so far about Out of Furnace is that the trailer is awesome and that the cast looks extremely promising. I haven’t seen Crazy Hearts so I can’t use it as a reference point but Christian Bale, Casey Affleck AND Woody Harrelson, what could really go wrong here.

Machete Kills

I know what everybody will think…you’re putting this trashy Danny Trejo trash in the same list with big Hollywood productions as the ones listed above. But you know what, when I watched the first Machete, I was surprised and highly entertained. It was thanks to the great performance of a cast which just wanted to have fun and a Danny Trejo who can only be portrayed by Danny Trejo. The trailer doesn’t neccessarly promise a lot of novelty but hey … Charlie Sheen as the president of the United States, Mel Gibson as the evil guy, Sophia Vergara shooting from her boobs and in between the non-tweeting Danny Trejo…what could possibly go wrong?

Tweet? Machete don’t tweet …

The Counselor

I really don’t know anything about this movie. But if you view movies as a sum of the following elements, we can expect an entertaining and highly polished thriller: